WAKEFIELD AND HEMSWORTH: Close race regarded as 'changing the local political landscape'

The party has not lost Wakefield since the 1930s – but the race has been close on occasions and this time Tory Alex Story was hoping the tide would change.

In the event, the poll was a two-horse race, with Labour winning 17,454 votes and the Tories 15,841 – representing a 6.9 per cent swing from Labour to the Conservatives.

Speaking after the result, Mr Story, a former Olympic rower, claimed the result had changed the local political landscape.

"You could say it's no longer a safe Labour seat," he claimed.

The last Conservative to represent the city was George Brown Hillman – who won the election of 1931, but died in office the following year.

He was replaced by the Labour Party's Arthur Greenwood, who held the seat for 22 years.

Mr Greenwood eventually became deputy leader of the party under Clement Attlee.

There followed a succession of Labour MPs – continuing with Mary Creagh who was first elected in 2005.

In Hemsworth, Labour's Jon Trickett held onto his seat but his share of the vote declined.

He polled 20,506 votes, in comparison with 10,622 votes polled by Conservative Ann Myatt – a swing of 7 per cent from Labour to Conservative.

Lib Dem Alan Belmore, a student, who at 19, if elected, would have become the country's youngest ever MP, polled 5,667 votes to finish in third place.

In Hemsworth, BNP candidate Ian Ashley Kitchen gained 3,059 votes, finishing fifth with seven per cent of the votes. In Wakefield, the BNP's Ian Senior came fourth – with 2,581 votes and a 5.8 per cent share of the vote.